The Office of the Chancellor was created in 1970 in the course of the reorganization of the University of Maryland system. The Chancellor was the highest-ranking administrator for the College Park campus until the expansion of the University of Maryland in 1988, at which time the office was renamed Office of the President. The records consist of the administrative files of the Chancellor and include reports, financial and budget records, committee and task force files, publications, and working papers.

Important Information for Users of the Collection

Restrictions:

Yes, some files in this collection are restricted. Please contact the Archives and Manuscripts Department for more information.

Preferred citation:

Office of the Chancellor records, Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries.

Photocopies of original materials may be provided for a fee and at the discretion of the curator. Please see our Duplication of Materials policy for more information. Queries regarding publication rights and copyright status of materials within this collection should be directed to the appropriate curator.

Status:

This collection is PROCESSED.

Historical Note

The Office of the Chancellor was created in 1970 as a result of the reorganization of every campus of the University of Maryland system. Charles E. Bishop was the first Chancellor, serving from 1970 to 1974. John W. Dorsey was appointed Acting Chancellor and served from August 1974 to June 1975, when Robert L. Gluckstern became the second Chancellor of the College Park campus. He resigned from the position in June of 1982 and William English Kirwan was appointed acting chancellor. John B. Slaughter served as the final Chancellor of the University of Maryland, College Park campus, from 1982 to 1988. Upon the expansion of the University of Maryland in 1988, the office was renamed the Office of the President.

CHANCELLORS

July 1970-July 1974 Charles E. Bishop

August 1974-June 1975 John W. Dorsey (Acting)

June 1975-June 1982 Robert L. Gluckstern

July 1982-October 1982 William E. Kirwan (Acting)

November 1982-July 1988 John B. Slaughter

Name Changed to President, July 1988

PRESIDENTS

July 1988-January 1989 William E. Kirwan (Acting)

February 1, 1989-June 30, 1998 William E. Kirwan

July 1, 1998-August 31, 1998 Gregory L. Geoffroy (Acting)

September 1, 1998- Clayton D. Mote, Jr.

Education of University Chancellors

Charles E. Bishop

1946--B.S. in agricultural education, Berea College, Berea KY

1948--M.S. in agricultural economics, University of Kentucky

1952--Ph.D. in economics, University of Chicago

John W. Dorsey

1958--B.S. in economics, University of Maryland, College Park

attended London School of Economics

1964--Ph.D. in economics, Harvard University

Robert L. Gluckstern

1944--B.S. in electrical engineering, City College of New York

1948--Ph.D. in physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

John B. Slaughter

1956--B.S. in electrical engineering, Kansas State University

1961--M.S. in engineering, University of California, Los Angeles

1971--Ph.D. in engineering sciences, University of California, San Diego

William E. Kirwan

1960--B.A. in mathematics, University of Kentucky

1962--M.S. in mathematics, Rutgers University

1964--Ph.D. in mathematics, Rutgers University

Gregory L. Geoffroy

1968--B.S. in chemistry, University of Louisville

1974--Ph.D. in chemistry, California Institute of Technology

Clayton D. Mote, Jr.

1959--B.S. mechanical engineering, University of California, Berkeley

1960--M.S. mechanical engineering, University of Calfornia, Berkeley

1963--Ph.D. engineering mechanics, University of California, Berkeley

Chancellors/Presidents of the University of Maryland/College Park, Campus

Charles E. Bishop (1921-2012), July 1970-July 1974. Regarded as one of the leading educational authorities in the field of agricultural economics, Bishop spent twenty years as a faculty member at North Carolina State University. Before coming to campus, he was the vice president of the University of North Carolina for four years. He also participated in numerous assignments for the federal government and nationally based agricultural and educational organizations. During his tenure on campus, he oversaw a major academic reorganization He left in 1974 to become the president of the University of Arkansas.

John W. Dorsey (b. 1936), Acting, August 1974-June 1975. From August 1974 to June 1975, Dorsey was the acting chancellor. A native Marylander, he attended the University of Maryland, graduating with a B.S. in 1958. He continued his graduate education at the London School of Economics and Harvard University, where he received a Ph.D. in economics in 1964. He began teaching at College Park in 1963 and, in 1966, became the director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research. From 1970 to 1977, Dorsey was the vice chancellor for administrative affairs, after which he became the chancellor of the University of Maryland Baltmore County.

Robert L. Gluckstern (1924-2008), June 1975-June 1982. Prior to being named chancellor in 1975, Gluckstern was the vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost at the University of Massachusetts, Amhert, where he had been a professor since 1964. In his seven-year tenure as chancellor at the University of Maryland, Gluckstern worked to upgrade the academic quality of the campus by raising entrance standards. He also established scholarship programs that served as models elsewhere in the state, including the Banneker minority scholarship. He resigned in 1982 because of a strong desire to return to full-time teaching and research as a physicist.

John B. Slaughter (b. 1934), November 1982-July 1988. Slaughter, a native of Kansas, came to the University of Maryland in November 1982. The recipient of three degrees in engineering, he was the director of the National Science Foundation prior to becoming chancellor. During his tenure on campus, Slaughter made major advances in the recruitment and retention of African-American students and faculty. He also acted to stabilize the university during the upheaval generated by the sudden death of basketball star Len Bias in 1986. Slaughter resigned in 1988 to become president of Occidental College in Los Angeles.

William E. Kirwan (b. 1938), Acting President, July 1988-January 1989. President February 1, 1989-July 1, 1998. After the title change from chancellor to president, William E. Kirwan assumed the role of acting president in July 1988. In February of 1989, he was officially named president and remained in that position until July 1998, when he took over the same position at Ohio State University. Kirwan became an assistant professor in the mathematics department on campus in 1964, later serving as chair of the department from 1977 until 1981. He then moved into the administration as the vice chancellor of academic affairs and in 1986 as provost. While president, he focused on diversity as well as campus improvements in academics and physical facilities. In 2002, Kirwan returned to Maryland to become the third chancellor of the University System of Maryland.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The records consist of the administrative files of the Chancellor and include reports, financial and budget records, committee and task force files, publications, and working papers. Among the topics covered are: College Park campus academic and administrative organization, athletic programs, human relations, UMCP/Vietnam War years, student affairs, faculty affairs, budget and budget process, computers and computer applications, UMCP/State of Maryland relations, UMCP/United States government relations.

Custodial History and Acquisition Information

The papers of the University of Maryland, College Park campus Office of the Chancellor were deposited in the Archives and Manuscripts Department in 1978, 1981, and 1982.

Feasibility Committee (Task Force to Review the Academic Programs of the University for the Purpose of Ascertaining the Feasibility of Relocating any Program Entirely, or in Part, from One Campus to Another), April-June 1978

Related Material

Large unprocessed portions of the Records of the Chancellor's Office exist. Preliminary inventories are available upon request in the Maryland Room, Hornbake Library. Files from unprocessed collections must be screened by University of Maryland staff before researchers can consult them.

University Publications issued by the Chancellor's Office are filed under UPUB C15. Major individual titles are listed in the University of Maryland Libraries online catalog.

For other related archival and manuscript collections, please see the following subject guides.

Separated Material

There were numerous UMCP publications and Maryland State documents accompanying the Chancellor's files. These copies were sorted out of the collection and are now part of the University Publications collection and the Maryland State Documents collection.

Selected Search Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the University of Maryland Libraries' Catalog. Researchers desiring related materials about these topics, names, or places may search the Catalog using these headings.

Subjects

Higher education and state -- Maryland -- Archival resources

University of Maryland, College Park. Office of the Chancellor -- Archives

University of Maryland, College Park -- Administration -- History -- Sources